McCartney: The Cute One was the coolest Beatle in 1968, after his partner went off the deep end. And while he almost lost it with silly love songs years later, he has always held a part of himself at a remove.

McCartney: The Cute One was the coolest Beatle in 1968, after his...

McCartney: The Cute One was the coolest Beatle in 1968, after his... Photo-3745117.52568 - SFGate

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Crosby: We forget this, but circa 1930 Bing was all about cool, and his early film appearances demonstrate that it was all real.

Crosby: We forget this, but circa 1930 Bing was all about cool,...

Crosby: We forget this, but circa 1930 Bing was all about cool,... Photo-3745118.52568 - SFGate

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Actually, I find the Dylan schtick creepy and phony, but the talent was real, and he gets credit for not cracking a smile for 50 years.

Actually, I find the Dylan schtick creepy and phony, but the talent...

Actually, I find the Dylan schtick creepy and phony, but the talent... Photo-3745119.52568 - SFGate

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Who would not want to be like Cary Grant? Even Cary Grant wanted to be like Cary Grant.

Who would not want to be like Cary Grant? Even Cary Grant wanted...

Who would not want to be like Cary Grant? Even Cary Grant wanted... Photo-3745120.52568 - SFGate

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Gable: He has been dead for over 50 years and remains the standard against which all leading men are judged.

Gable: He has been dead for over 50 years and remains the standard...

Gable: He has been dead for over 50 years and remains the standard... Photo-3745121.52568 - SFGate

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Clint: He parodied cool but was cool all the same -- and he's done nothing in the years since to blow it.

Clint: He parodied cool but was cool all the same -- and he's done...

Clint: He parodied cool but was cool all the same -- and he's... Photo-3745122.52568 - SFGate

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Bowie: The thin white Duke has never given it away. We can see him, but he never spills over.

Bowie: The thin white Duke has never given it away. We can see...

Bowie: The thin white Duke has never given it away. We can see... Photo-3745123.52568 - SFGate

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Dean Martin: No, I don't like his singing, but Dean was even cooler than Frank, because Dean didn't care and Frank only pretended not to care.

Dean Martin: No, I don't like his singing, but Dean was even...

Dean Martin: No, I don't like his singing, but Dean was even... Photo-3745124.52568 - SFGate

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Desi Arnaz: OK, I laughed at first. But this guy has been on TV for 60 years. And he was even cool as an old guy on Saturday Night Live.

Desi Arnaz: OK, I laughed at first. But this guy has been on TV...

Desi Arnaz: OK, I laughed at first. But this guy has been on TV... Photo-3745125.52568 - SFGate

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Sinatra: Touchy, mean-spirited and status conscious, too worried about being cool to be innately cool, he somehow was cool anyway. Something to do with Ava Gardner, maybe. Or with the voice.

By popular demand -- what an omission. Johnny Cash was so cool he made country music cool, which is almost impossible.

By popular demand -- what an omission. Johnny Cash was so cool he...

By popular demand -- what an omission. Johnny Cash was so cool he... Photo-3745133.52568 - SFGate

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This is the cool Keith Richards. The old guy. He was probably cool for decades, but it's the over-40 Keith, the survivor Keith -- the oh, wait, he's not an idoiot, is he? Keith -- that has connected with the public imagination.

Photo: 2007 Getty Images

This is the cool Keith Richards. The old guy. He was probably cool...

This is the cool Keith Richards. The old guy. He was probably cool... Photo-3745134.52568 - SFGate

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Malcolm X: Totally unfazeable, the man Ossie Davis called "our living, black manhood" became an icon for coolness and commitment a quarter century after his death.

Mastroianni: He was one of the defining images of masculinity in the 20th century -- handsome but fallible, doubting, lost, questing -- virility with an element of the ridiculous -- and always self-knowing.

Mastroianni: He was one of the defining images of masculinity in...

Mastroianni: He was one of the defining images of masculinity in... Photo-3745136.52568 - SFGate

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Brando: He started out cool and stayed so weird that he never had a chance to be un-cool.

Brando: He started out cool and stayed so weird that he never had a...

Brando: He started out cool and stayed so weird that he never had a... Photo-3745137.52568 - SFGate

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Jagger: By contrast, it was the young Mick --lordly, decadent, ambisexual, threatening, the Platonic ideal of rock star -- that captured the public mind in the late sixties and early seventies.

Jagger: By contrast, it was the young Mick --lordly, decadent,...

Jagger: By contrast, it was the young Mick --lordly, decadent,... Photo-3745138.52568 - SFGate

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Miles Davis: Not only cool -- he wrote the book on cool.

Miles Davis: Not only cool -- he wrote the book on cool.

Miles Davis: Not only cool -- he wrote the book on cool. Photo-3745139.52568 - SFGate

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Mitchum makes everybody else on screen look like they're having a nervous breakdown.